David McCallum. Get real, this is Helensburgh …

David McCallum. Get real, this is Helensburgh we are talking about not somewhere like Dumbarton or Clydebank. If any of those clothing retailers would locate anywhere first, it certainly would not be Helesburgh. There are plenty of locations in Dumbarton that they could use but none have tried to open up there, and with there being a much bigger pool of people in Dumbarton it would make much more economic sense. The Co-Op building would be way to large for somewhere like Halfords or next or GAP anyway.

Robert Wakeman. I think it is alwasy a possibility about to much trade being lost that it cannot be ruled out, however Waitrose is not known for good value for money so this is quite unlikely to happen. There is more chance that people will return to the Co-Op and regret allowing Waitrose to come to town in the first place.

mcscoty also commented

Well I am not happy about the Waitrose location, I think it is the wrong place and it WILL have an impact on the town centre that will be far outweigh the 860k bribe that they were foreced to pay. People will lose jobs, and businesses will close down, this will take time, probably about 5 years from now, and you may live to regret it. The prices at Waitrose are actually inline with the Co-OP so there will not be any saving there, although you can’t argue with having more choice on offer, however I wonder if people have fully thought this through.

If Waitrose is a big success and this closes down Tesco and the Co-OP because of lack of trade then we are going to be left with two empty properties. The Co-OP in particular is a very large space to fill and it is unlikely that anyone other than another supermarket would pick this up. If say Asda or Tesco were to take it over, and transfer the staff then that would be great, but what happens if they dont? The staff in the Co-OP and Tesco will lose jobs and any increase in employment will be negated if that was to happen, so effectivly we will be just as bad as we are now.

Recent comments by mcscoty

Helensburgh retailers full of positivity – for town centre WaitroseThe reference to the majority of Helensburgh people not wanting a supermarket on the pier is an absolute load of utter rubbish. This reference came from Helensburgh Community Council, Darrel Hendry to be precise and is completly and utterly a load of rubbish. The result of HCC’s survey showed that less than 3% of the population of Helensburgh do not want a supermarket on the pier, that leave 97% who quite possibly could want one on the pier but for a number of reason their voices have not been heard. This could be caused by the diabolical way that the HCC survey was carried out, a lack of desire to comment for fear that their opinion wont be counted, or simply because not enough people knew about the meeting, or had time to attend. The only real way most people would know about this meeting is because of the Helensburgh Advertiser, and the distribution of this paper is extremely low.

What has been totally ignored was the professional survey carried out by Hexagon that is based on scientific principles, unlike the ameraturish efforts of HCC. The Hexagon survey proved that more people were for the pier head development than where against it, and the vast majorty of the respondents wanting it were in the <35 age bracket. This survey was only a street survey, had it been carried out fully the results could have been even wider.

Once again the people who get a say in Helensburgh appear to be the golden oldies and not the people who count, the younger generation who will have to live with the results of this decision for many many years to come.

HCC should be disbanded as they are totally uneffective, the fact that the Helensburgh Retailers Association had to stand up for themselves because their voice was ignored by HCC, in fact HCC didn't even have any knowledge of HRA or shop keepers who wanted the pier head site, this goes to show how bad they are, but to be fair, they are all ameratures trying to play at big peoples games when they havne't got a clue. I also notice how some affiliations between the No sayers for the pier development and certain members of HCC has never been mentioned. It does make you wonder what is going on here.